Russian Man Tried A Fake Marriage & Child Scam To Stay In Maine

It literally sounds like something off of Law & Order.

But it's true, and it happened right here in Maine, over the course of several years. I mean you read about stuff like this, and always assume it happens somewhere else. Or that people even think you can generally get away with this sort of thing in this day and age. But hey.... it's 2021, so anything is possible.

The whole story began in 2011. A Russian man had been going to SOuthern Maine Community College back in 2011 on a student visa, according to WGME and the BDN. The woman involved was only 17 at the time, and when she turned 18, Sasha Gormatov tried to pay Raeanna Johnson to marry him, so he could stay in the U.S.

The problem is, they weren't very smart about it.

Fast forward two years, and the folks from immigration services began questioning the couple. They kept up their story that they were married, and soon after that Johnson gave birth to another man's baby, but claimed on the birth certificate that Gormatov was actually the father, in another attempt to secure his residency.

When things heated up in 2018, Gormatov fled back to Russia. But then came back to the states, surprisingly doubling down on his claim that the baby was his. Both Gormatov and Johnson were finally arrested in 2020, and now Gormatov has been convicted of a host of charges, and Johnson basically flipped on him.

There's so many things wrong with this plan...

Again, this all seems like something off of TV, and it really seems about as well planned. These two took a bunch of far-fetched stories and thought no one would notice. A simple DNA test would confirm that baby wasn't his. So why they thought was their ace-in-the-hole, who knows?

But as my grandfather used to say all the time: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. This is your living proof. Right here in Maine. Who'd have thunk it?! (yes I know that's not real word, calm down grammar police, haha)